Warner Bros. Discovery CEO and President David Zaslav, just a day after revealing details of the new combined streaming service Max, joined industry titans Steven Spielberg and Paul Thomas Anderson to tout another area close to the heart of the studio he now heads: the importance of restoring and preserving Warner Bros.’ rich legacy of film classics, especially as it heads into its 100th anniversary year. Appearing on stage at the opening night of the 14th TCM Classic Film Festival with Spielberg and Anderson in a conversation moderated by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz, Zaslav — who previously stated his belief in the theatrical experience and a return to that after 2021’s much-derided day-and-date release model under past CEO Jason Kilar — made it clear that the studio’s commitment to the preservation and well-being of the studio’s rich library will be a priority in his administration. (Turner Classic Movies is a cable channel under the WBD umbrella.)
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David Zaslav, Steven Spielberg TCM Classic Film Festival
“I’m a fan just like you. If I wasn’t here, I would be sitting with you,” Zaslav told the packed audience at the TCL Chinese Imax theater. “I watch Turner Classic Movies all the time. It’s the history of our country, the motion pictures. There’s no other medium where you come together. Most of the things we do, we do alone, but you go to the theater with a friend. There are people around you. The lights go out, and it’s magic. It happened to me when I was very young in Brooklyn, and I would go on the weekends with my dad. And it’s that idea of a story, it could change the way you see yourself, the way you see the world. And it’s critically important I think, particularly at this time, that we tell stories. It’s now the 100th anniversary of Warner Bros. It’s surreal and I’m so lucky to be sitting on top of this great, historic company. But in the ’30s the Warner brothers themselves did over 100 movies a year. … And if you lived on a farm in Oklahoma, you got that’s what New York looks like, and that’s how you dress when you go out on the date. Movies taught people the stories of America, the stories in the world, and in many ways how to be an American. And so we have a great obligation. These are two of the greatest filmmakers of the last of our generation, of my generation. So I’m so thrilled to be here. And we’re all in on the motion picture business. We want to tell a lot of stories that hopefully you all will go see and bring to Main Street in America. We need it.”
Spielberg and Anderson are both on the board of The Film Foundation, the organization founded by Martin Scorsese that is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of movies. In conjunction with TFF and TCM, Warners is restoring 10 of its classics including Rio Bravo, the 1959 Howard Hawks western that opened the TCM Fest last night with the world premiere of its 4K restoration (91-year-old co-star Angie Dickinson appeared for a brief conversation before the movie, and both she and it looked better than ever). There also is Elia Kazan’s 1955 East of Eden with James Dean in the first of his three films for Warner Bros. before his tragic death at age 24. “David and Warner Bros have their own archivalists, and they have titles they’d like from the Warner Bros. archive to be preserved,” said Spielberg, explaining how titles are chosen, nearly 1,000 since 1990. “And every studio does have that, but we try to find the films — not the films that are our favorite movies but films that tell a very unique story of this country and the people of this country. And not only this country, but we’re rescuing experimental films, documentaries, already 97 international films. So this is something that’s not going to stop. And I just have to say I’m so proud that Marty [Scorsese], we’re all very busy making our movies, but in 1990 Marty put everything aside and said ‘No, this is what we were prioritizing. This is what needs to be done.’”
Anderson took it a step further and put it in even a more personal way. “Sometimes it goes even beyond the history of the business. … It starts to end up being the protection of memories, like very, very important memories that we each individually have,” he said. “‘Where was I when I saw E.T.?’ I remember very well, and I remember the friends I was with, and I remember who I took to see that film as much as I remember the film. Yes, it’s the preservation of our work, but it’s also preserving our memories and helping us to preserve those memories so that when you want to revisit that moment of that feeling of when you walked into a theater you can. We all want to hold on to our memories, but sometimes they fade away from u. But we can hold on to them if we preserve them this way.”
Marlon Brando and KArl Malden in ‘One Eyed Jacks’
Spielberg, who deferred to Scorsese in the choice process for Film Foundation as a film expert he pretty much “rubber stamps” (along with Margaret Bodde, the longtime Executive Director of TFF), mentioned a favorite western of his, 1961’s One Eyed Jacks, the only movie its star Marlon Brando ever directed. He couldn’t find a decent copy of it, even on VHS, but through their preservation efforts finally was able to locate a negative that was in decent shape, the key to preserving it for all time. Anderson mentioned that Christopher Nolan spotlighted 1964’s caper comedy Topkapi, which won Peter Ustinov an Oscar, as in desperate need and that TFF is working on it, as well as a Max Ophuls’ 1949 classic Caught, which he had trouble finding in any kind of presentable shape.
Zaslav, clearly a savvy film fan himself, cited a few movies he wants to make sure are saved. “You know, when I think of what we need to do, what our obligation is to move forward in the spirit of Warner Bros., i think of three films,” Zaslav said pointing to their historical and social value. “Black Legion, a film from the ’30s, which took a lot of courage at the time, but it was a movie that stood up against the KKK. Warner Bros. was actually sued for showing the Ku Klux Klan insignia and they won the case. And Confessions of a Nazi Spy … the first movie that talked about what was going on in Germany.”
Zaslav also mentioned an important Best Picture Oscar winner that came out after the war, 20th Century Fox’s Gentleman’s Agreement with Gregory Peck, a film that dealt squarely with the horrors of antisemitism. “I think I called Steven when I saw it because it was right at the time when there was a big incident with Kanye West and we were questioning this whole moment we’re in in America with hate of others. Turner Classic Movies put on Gentlemen’s Agreement, and I think you [Spielberg] were in front of it, talking about the subject. … We tell stories to entertain, but a lot of what you do, and what the history of film does is, it’s a way for us to heal. And it’s a way for us to say what’s OK, and what’s not OK.”
Check out the entire conversation at the link below.
